Traditionally, assistive listening devices have existed to improve the hearing of the hearing impaired population. Today, these devices are very sophisticated. Computer technology abounds in the field of assistive listening devices. Tiny computer chips that are programmable by audiologists and other hearing professionals exist in these ear-level devices. Professionals are employed to program the devices for their patients and patient input to the device's “best fit” are mostly subjective.
It is very rare indeed that a hearing impaired person has identical amounts of loudness loss at all pitches. Most commonly, patients exhibit dissimilar amounts of hearing loss (inability to hear at certain pitches) at various frequencies. For example, an individual's hearing loss may be greater at the high frequencies when compared to the low frequencies. Hearing health professionals make measurements to determine the extent of an individual's hearing impairment. With these measurements, programmable parameters for fitting a hearing device are determined. These parameters are typically adjusted by means of a computer graphical interface that the hearing professional uses to customize the hearing instrument to the patient's hearing needs. In addition, countless formulae to customize the acoustical needs of the patient have been derived by universities, hearing scientists and hearing instrument manufacturers.
Measurement and interpretation of auditory threshold is traditionally done through audiometry that is administered by a specialist of the hearing field or an audiologist. In most cases, it is the audiologist's responsibility to record the threshold data and then to recommend amplification that is correct for the hearing impaired individual. Many times, however, the audiologist's job is confounded by inconsistencies such as patient perception, patient cooperation during testing, audiologic equipment, hearing instrument manufacturer software hang-ups and unrealistic patient expectations. In short, it can be a daunting task to test the hearing, recommend the amplification and then fit the hearing device to the patient's ear.
For the ambitious practitioner, testing does not stop once the audiometry is done. These individuals may use direct measurement of the hearing instrument while it is in the patient's ear canal. Such testing is called real ear testing. For this objective measure, a probe microphone is placed into the ear for direct observation of the sound pressure level in the ear canal. This is done while the hearing instrument is in the auditory meatus (or otherwise called in-situ). However, this direct measurement is often inconsistently assessed because of difficulties with hearing instrument placement, probe microphone position in the canal, reference microphone placement, calibration of the sound field and even sound field noise. In short, it is difficult to absolutely know the sound pressure of the ear canal as a hearing instrument is being used. Without confidence in the measurements one certainly is without confidence in his/her ability to assess the utility of the amplification.
For these and other reasons, the present invention aims inter alia to provide a hearing system and method for a relatively easy self-administered audition threshold determination.